Benin
Syllables: Be·nin/bɪˈniːn//bəˈnin/
Benin proper noun: people's Republic of Benin, from 1975 to 1990.
Proper noun
Benin
- People's Republic of Benin, from 1975 to 1990
- Republic of Benin, since 1990
- A historical kingdom in West Africa, in present-day Nigeria.
Benin meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
Benin in Hindi
- country
- बेनिन benin
Benin in Tamil
- country
- பெனின் peṉiṉ
Benin in Urdu
- country
- بینن benin
Benin in Bengali
- country
- বেনিন benin
More languagesFewer languages
- Benin in Kannada
- ಬೆನಿನ್
- Benin in Tagalog
- Benin
- Benin in Arabic
- بَنِين banīn
- Benin in Malay
- Benin
- Benin in Indonesian
- Benin
- Benin in Persian
- بنین benin
- Benin in Thai
- เบนิน bee-nin
- Benin in Vietnamese
- Bê-nanh
- Benin in Myanmar
- ဘီနင် bhinang
- Dhivehi
- ބެނީން benīn̊
Origin of Benin
Borrowed from French Bénin, from Portuguese Benim, from Itsekiri Ubinu. The term is first documented in the late 1490s upon Portuguese contact with the Itsekiri Kingdom. The etymology is unclear; it appears Benin was always used as an exonym (probably by the Itsekiri and Yoruba) for the Benin Kingdom, which was always referred to as Ẹ̀dó, and older Ìgòdòmigòdò. The leading hypothesis is that the term originally derived from Yoruba ilẹ̀ ìbínú (“land of anger”), which emerges from a folk myth regarding purported founder of the Benin empire, Oranmiyan, who was a Yoruba prince, who referred to the region by this phrase because of his frustration in ruling the land.
Words formed from Benin
Phrases with Benin
Words that rhyme with Benin
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- chin
- Flynn
- bin
- Quinn
- sin
- tin
- Bryn
- corinne
- inn
- din
- Finn
- grin
- kin
- lin
- linn
- unpin
- min
- shin
- violin
- wherein
- within
- akin
- been
- begin
- brin
- chin-chin
- hin
- lyn
- mandolin
- whin
- zoom in
- agin
- agrin
- Arabian jasmine
- blin
- djinn
- Douyin
- edge in
- gimme some skin
- glyn
- herein
- jinn
- Karin
- kissing kin
- lecithin
- Nguyen
- nin
Questions about Benin
- What does Benin mean?
- Benin means people's Republic of Benin, from 1975 to 1990.
- What is Benin in Hindi?
- Benin in Hindi is बेनिन (benin). See Benin meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is Benin?
- Benin is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce Benin?
- Benin is pronounced /bɪˈniːn/ (UK).
Words near Benin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Benin (page history and authors); Benin (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-Benin.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Soundguys-Benin.wav.
Cite this entry: “Benin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/benin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.